showmebass

You posted earlier that you have a 998 SI unit, and that's the same one I have. Let me know if you'd like to meet up sometime for some help. I'm no expert compared to the pros, but I know enough to be dangerous. Doug Vahrenberg has dozens of videos on YouTube explaining all the ins and outs of Humminbird units.

I operate under the same rules myself due to posts I make on another board, and I don't blame you a bit.

A well-placed 1 oz spoon might have deterred him....just remember to take the hook off first. What kind of boat is your new rig?

Robert - see video link below. Don't know whether you've watched this before, but it is a great tutorial on side imaging. This really opened my eyes to the power and accuracy of SI. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3xe6pLPdMKc

Man - those would be easy pickins, assuming the area wasn't covered in idiots driving wake boats.

Looks like maybe a school of crappie in your first SI/DI pic. Go get em!

Has a thermocline set up yet at LOZ? Thanks in advance.

I used to have the same troubles. Best advice I can give is to trust your electronics. Another thing you can do is create your own crappie habitats at various locations in 25-30 FOW near a channel or outside of a channel swing. I really like the Porcupine Fish attractors. They make for great habitat (if placed in the right spot) and they'll never decompose like brush. Best of all - even the most modern sonar doesn't see the PVC very well, so only you will know where it is.

I didn't weigh the big girl, but she was 15" long. The photo below is her next to a 10.5" fish. I typically use 1/16 oz jig heads, even at deeper depths. I believe it allows the fish to suck in the lure easier....just a theory. If I'm fighting a stronger wind, I'll use a small split-shot sinker about 12"-14" above the jig.

Saturday was a beautiful day to be on the water. I went out in search of crappie, and the early bite was really good. I had a limit by 10:00, but it had really slowed down by then. All fish caught on Bobby Garland Minnow Mind'rs in blue/chartreuse (Love Bug). They were DEEP today, with most of my fish biting around 25' down. Caught a few in the 27'-30' range. I found most of them on creek channel swings with brush nearby, and a few of them came from standing timber. I had to weed through a lot of small fish to get my limit, which is unusual for this time of year.

I launched at Horseshoe Bend last night around 4:30. Started out searching for crappie. I caught probably 15 total, and kept 5 over 12" for the frying pan. Compared to last year at this same time, I'm not finding nearly the concentrations of fish at my spots....yet. As the water continues to warm I expect (hope) things will get better in these locations. I started chasing bass around 6:30, and it was so-so. Caught 10 total, and most of them came on a Biffle Hardhead rig on the bottom in about 15 FOW. Only 1 keeper.

I had a decent morning south of the 12 bridge. Caught a dozen or so bass early on top water and jigs, but only 1 of them was a keeper. The crappie weren't biting as well for me this morning as they have been; I managed to clean 10 fish over 11". I found a couple big schools of crappie, but they seemed to have lockjaw this morning.

Well - I've never golfed nor seen game of thrones, so I'll take your word for it. Besides, the bass fisherman in me really enjoys feeling "the thump" when I'm reeling the jig in.

I'm using the Minnow Mind'rs. They have a great natural action to them despite the hassle of the line twist caused by their spiraling on their way down. I haven't really considered spider rigging or trolling, but I may give it a try sometime in the future. My side imaging unit is a great aid in locating fish.

I let the jig fall until it stops, which means it has either hit the bottom or a fish has grabbed it. For the retrieve, I just slowly reel it back to the surface, imparting no additional action to the jig. If you get into a school, you'll quickly find out how deep the fish are holding, which will in turn save you time by not needing to let it fall clear to the bottom. When they hit it, they really thump it hard. I use hi-viz yellow 6lb test line (Suffix Elite), as this helps me see the line stop or jump when a fish hits it on the fall. The biggest drawback to this method is line twist. The jigs tend to "helicopter" on the way down.

I don't think there's a wrong way to fish Bobby Garland jigs (or any other type) as long as you can get them to the optimum depth. I like to fish them vertically once I've located a school of crappie. My boat is a bass rig and I've not set it up for spider rigging, and it idles too fast to effectively troll. I've got about a dozen places that hold crappie just about all year. The only time there aren't at least a few crappie in these spots is during the spawn. It seems that they hold the most crappie when air/water temps peak in the summer. If you find a place where the channel swings up near the bank and there is a sudden change in bottom composition, you will almost certainly find a large school of crappie nearby, not to mention the bass that like to hang in these areas as well. I became an "accidental" crappie fisherman one day a few years ago while throwing a Red Eye Shad in one of these areas and I kept hooking up on crappie. I put 2 and 2 together and found that this pattern could be duplicated all over the lake in nearly any place I found similar structure/conditions as outlined above.

The crappie are definitely moving full-bore into their summertime haunts. I caught these in 20-25 FOW near channel swings and in standing timber. All fish caught on Bobby Garland Minnow Mind'rs in blue/chartreuse on a 1/16 oz jig head.

I last ran up War Eagle and White River about a week ago. It was almost impassible with all of the drift, not to mention the minimal water clarity. Has anyone fished upriver this week? Just curious if conditions have improved any. I was on a really good crappie dock bite, but all of my docks had tons of drift/debris around them the last time I was down there.

My brother had an unfortunate mishap while pulling his boat, and we are looking for a replacement trailer. Boat is a 92 Bass Cat Pantera II (19'). Does anybody know of a trailer for sale around the Lake? Doesn't necessarily have to be a Bass Cat trailer. Thanks in advance.

My brother had an unfortunate mishap while pulling his boat, and we are looking for a replacement trailer. Boat is a 92 Bass Cat Pantera II (19'). Does anybody know of a trailer for sale in the NWA region? Doesn't necessarily have to be a Bass Cat trailer. Thanks in advance.

I too have used the gill cutting method in the past from time to time. As you take the fish out of the live well, just snip their gills with scissors. They will usually die in 5-10 minutes.

The crappie bite was AWESOME on Saturday. I had a good limit (11" - 12" average) by 9:15am. Bobby Garland Minnow Mind'rs was my magic bullet. I found most of them in one location. They were stacked up in 37 fow, and I was getting bites all through the water column.

agreed

I haven't been able to find them over brush piles in open water. I'm finding them with my SI unit in standing timber and docks that have brush underneath. Catching them on both jigs (Bobby Garland Minnow Mind'rs and Slab Slay'rs) and minnows. Here's an image from my H'bird unit in DI mode on Sunday evening:

July was pretty slow for crappie, but they've really turned back on lately. Here's a couple of pics from Saturday morning and Sunday evening. Caught all these south of the 12 bridge.